Jenny Hoff

What's your position?
Political Reporter/ Weekend Morning Anchor

When did you start at KXAN?
March of 2005

What was your most memorable story?
In the years I've been at KXAN, I've collected quite of list of stories I'll never forget covering. Some of the top contenders include: following Hurricane Rita along the Texas coast, covering the presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Austin, spending two months in West Texas during the raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch and the late night revolt in the House of Representatives at the Texas Capitol.

However, my most memorable assignment has to be the two weeks I spent in Kabul, Afghanistan. From the stories we found to the adventures we had trying to get in and out of the country, it was an experience I'll never forget.

How did you get started in TV?
Growing up, my main activities always seemed to focus on asking a lot of questions, performing for any camera around, reading every book I got my hands on and observing the people around me. Broadcast Journalism seemed like a natural fit.

Where did you go to college?
I graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Missouri-Columbia and received two degrees: Journalism and Political Science. Besides allowing us to work as reporters for an NBC affiliate while in college, Mizzou also gave me great opportunities to experience news gathering at the national and international levels.  I spent a year studying abroad in Singapore, where I worked with former TIME magazine journalists and tracked terrorist group movements in Southeast Asia as part of an investigative piece. During the summer, I was an International Radio and Television Society Fellow at World News Tonight. My school also awarded me with a grant to cover the International Youth Leadership Conference in Prague.

What's your hometown?
St. Louis, Missouri---and Italy. I spent many of my summers there growing up, as it is my mom's native country.

How do you want to make a difference?
As a journalist, my hope is to empower people with knowledge. Reporting can be a tiring, gritty and time-consuming career, but it's worth every second if my stories can inspire change or expose injustice.

Tell us about your family.
My mom is from Italy and runs a travel company specializing in Italian travel. My big brother works in New York as a computer software engineer, and my dad is a lawyer in St. Louis. I am extremely close to my family and probably speak as much as three hours on the phone to them a day!

What's your guilty pleasure?
I don't know if this is guilty as much as a passion. I absolutely love dancing: country- western, salsa, Middle-Eastern, you name it. It doesn't matter if I know what I'm doing, I love learning new steps!

You can e-mail Jenny at Jenny.Hoff@kxan.com .